It's Basketball Time in Tennessee

So I've been absent the last few days. Sorry about that. I missed my weekly Prison Break post, but if that is your highlight of the week, then you need to get out more. So onto the topic of today's post, UT Basketball. I know, I know, it's two days before the first football game. Well, yesterday, Coach Pearl got some great news regarding one of his highly touted recruits. Ramar Smith, from Detroit, was finally cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse and allowed to enter school. The holdup with Ramar was in validating his SAT score. For those that don't know the whole story, let me share it with you.

As a senior Ramar committed to play for the UConn Huskies. UConn transferred him to a prep school to begin his senior year. Ramar didn't like the situation and returned Detroit and his original high school, Martin Luther King HS. He decommitted from UConn and reopened his recruitment. He was always an academic liability, as he had struggled some in his earlier high school years. He took the ACT and didn't recieve a high enough score based on his HS GPA. For those that don't know, to qualify in the NCAA, you have to meet certain requirements based on a sliding scale that corresponds to your HS GPA and test score. Back to Ramar, he eventually raised his GPA and signed with UT. He took the SAT in June and received a high enough score to qualify. Smith's case was red-flagged by the Clearinghouse, and recently issues were brought up on him that he possibly had cheated since his writing didn't match that on his University application. First, anyone that has ever taken the SAT or ACT knows it's pretty much impossible for anyone to cheat on one of those tests as you have to supply ID and all kinds of other stuff. Anyways, Ramar supplied more copies of his writing and yesterday, was told that he had been cleared by the Clearinghouse. What happened with the mismatching writing on the test and application? Well, Ramar revealed that his mother had filled out the application and that was why the writing samples had not matched. It's really amazing that this could happen. I don't know if my mom filled out my applications, but it wouldn't surprise me if she did. It makes you wonder how many 18 year olds get their moms to fill out their applications. Just glad it all got cleared up and he got in.

Now, getting Ramar in school is huge for the basketball team this fall. He completes the Top 5 recruiting class and comes in as a possible replacement for CJ Watson at the point. From those that have seen Ramar play, he is a stud. A top 20 player in the 06 class, he will complement the rest of the team well. I can hear it now. Bob, "Smith to Lofton for the three." Bert, "MONEY!!!" Man, I love UT basketball.

What? A weekend post?

Yes, it's me. Posting on the weekend. I just had such a great start to the weekend that I had to post something about it. Now, I know everyone, meaning all 3 readers of this blog, are wondering how my weekend could have gotten off to such a wonderful start. Well, let me tell you.

As soon as the weekend began, meaning as soon as I got off from work, I turn onto Neyland Drive to head home for the night of fun ahead. Well, I turn onto Neyland from Lake Loudon and get behind a white minivan. I am in the right hand lane, looking to get over, but there's a lot of traffic so I don't ever get a chance to get into the left lane. Both the minivan and I pull to a stop at the traffic light at Neyland and Joe Johnson, right in front of the agricultural campus. Once I stop, I look up into my rearview mirror to check on the car behind me, as I usually do. This is were my weekend took a downfall. To my terror, the man driving a white car, is checking out the Tennessee River. Why, you ask? I have no idea. Maybe he saw a ripple in the water, I have no clue. All I know is that I see him approaching me, not slowing down and checking out the ducks, or whatever, on the river. I ease up of my brakes hoping to scoot up, in hopes that he will look forward and see me, and stop in time and I won't get hit. NOPE. He turns around and sees me, tries to stop, but not in time. He rear ends me into the minivan, and now we have a three way wreck involving, yes, three white cars. We pull our cars over, as no one appears to be hurt. The lady driving the minivan gets out to inspect her car, and I roll my window down. I explain what happened, and she rudely asks me, "Are you going to call the police?" So I call 911 and shortly thereafter, a rent-a-cop or something like that, shows up. He checks with us to make sure everyone is ok, and we were. He asks me if I would like to file a report, and then asks if I have looked at my car. I reply that I haven't looked at my car yet and I get out to check the damage. The cop walks around the back with me, and then tells me that the guy hit me with enough force, that my license plate number was imprinted onto the front of his car! Luckily, I had no damage to my car, front or back, except for some scratches on the paint. Actually, that was the only damage on all three cars, as there was no body damage. WHEW! Eventually, a real cop showed up and got the whole story and all our information. I ended up talking to the women in the minivan, and she was actually very nice about everything. I think she was just a little ticked off at the whole thing in the beginning. Luckily, no injuries and no major damage, so thats the good news, but what a start to the weekend! I mean, can a guy great a break or something? It just seems like everything is going bad right now for me. Hopefully, that will turn around soon.

It's back!

The fall has officially began. No, it's not football season. FOX aired the season premiere of Prison Break last night, and it was well anticipated in my apartment. I know, I'm the only one in my apartment, but it was still greatly anticipated. And the show didn't disappoint. The season premiere had tons of twists, and even a SHOCKER at the end. Never saw that coming. For those that haven't seen the episode and wish to watch it, stop reading here. Otherwise, continue on.

The beginning of the show focused on the prisoners running away from the prison guards and establishing where the show left off last year. There were many flashbacks to last year and helped to remind the audience of things that had been forgotten since the last episode in May. There has been a new addition to the PB cast, William Fichtner aka Special Agent Alexander Mahone. Mahone is a great addition to the cast, as he is already right onto Michael's trail. You can already tell that Mahone and Bellick are going to clash. We find out that Michael definately had everything planned out, even a backup plan for their escape if Abruzzi's plane didn't work out, which it didn't. But Mahone is on to him. He has realized that Michael has the whole plan tattooed on him, and now all Mahone has to do is figure out the tattoo. Should be interesting. And now on to the shocker. Veronica finds Terrance Steadman and confronts him about why he hasn't said something about himself being alive while Lincoln was being sentenced to death. Steadman tells Veronica that she is now trapped and can't leave because the doors only open from the outside and that the glass is 2 inches thick. Veronica then calls the police and tells them to come immediately. Lincoln then calls her and is able to talk to her when the "police" arrive. Veronica is surprised when the "police" aka Secret Service pull a gun on her and shoot her dead. So Lincoln hears his ex-girlfriend shot over the phone and is stunned and terrified. This will set up some great plot lines for the rest of the season. Mahone vs. Scofield. Lincoln out for revenge. Stay tuned for more.

Laser Quest . . .

So last night, Richard, who was our deacon over the young professionals and college group at West End, along with our softball coach, Scott, had their 40th B-day party. Their wives threw them a surprise party at Laser Quest and invited a ton of people. There were probably about 40 people there, maybe more. They rented out the whole place just for us, which was awesome!!!!! They had all the over the hill stuff, even blow-up canes and a blow-up walker. The cake was a tombstone, which we proceeded to put 80 candles on, 40 for each of them! I think it almost set off a fire alarm! HAHA! Anyways, we got to play two rounds of Laser Tag. Scott had the pleasure of finishing first both times. All I heard from both Scott and Richard's kids was how they were so good and always finished one and two. Well, Scott held up his end. Richard, not so much. In the first game, Batman (that was me) and Thor (Richard) went at it the whole game. He shot me the most, but I shot him more times :). While Thor finished the game in seventh I believe, Batman triumphed over evil and finished in second!! For those that have never played Laser Quest in Knoxville, basically the key to the game is to find a hideout and just sit there and snipe people. If you run around, your done. Simple as that. After finally finding my spot, that was when me and Richard went at it. We were in the same overlook, going at each other the whole time. The second game I, aka SpydrMnky, teemed up with Brad, aka The Magic Man, and two other guys and we basically locked down a whole overlook. We each had windows we were shooting out of. As stated previously, Scott, aka Thelma for the 2nd game, finished first, but once again, yours truly, aka SpydrMnky, finished second. Scott's wife then decided that next time, me and Scott need to have a showdown, mono e mono. Anyways, just thought I would share that fun from last night.

Here's a thought to leave you with. Why is it that the 3 main superheros, in my opinion, Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, all have first names as their full name? See Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, and Peter Parker. Interesting.

The oblong ball

Yesterday, while eating at a mexican restaurant on Kingston Pike next to Macaroni Grill that shall remain nameless, :) , the fearless leader of the UT offense walked in for lunch. For those that are lost, I'm refering to Eric Ainge. After a long conversation that was quite hilarious about what would happen if Brad were to tackle Eric in the middle of the restaurant, I thought I might post some of my thoughts on the current QB competition right now.

Basically, the competition consists of Ainge, a junior, versus Jonathan Crompton, a redshirt Freshman. Everyone knows about Ainge and his struggles last year. Many were hoping that under Cutcliffe that he would improve. After the first scrimmage this past Saturday, which I did not see but only heard about, it appears that he is still struggling with the same demons he dealt with last year. Crompton came to UT last year as the "savior" at quaterback. After being an All-American in high school, everyone expected him to challenge for the job, but a shoulder injury sidelined him for the season last year. He seems to be doing fairly well in practice, but is still making freshman mistakes. He did well, according to Fulmer, in practice, except for his tw0 fumbled snaps. That in my opinion is the only opinion that should count. From my experience with basketball, there are usually only a few people that know when someone does something wrong on the field or court, and that usually is the coaches. Lots of times QB's will get blames for bad throws, when in fact it could have been the receiver's fault. Only the coaches and players will know that. For example, Ainge was blasted by some when he called a timeout on the first play of the scrimmage Saturday. Come to find out, the coaches called the "timeout" because they weren't prepared to start the scrimmage just yet. Others blasted the receivers because they didn't appear to do too well. Fulmer said yesterday that he thought the receivers did an excellent job and that the QB's just needed to catch up to them. Just goes to show that people don't know as much as they think they do.

Anyways, here is my question to think about. Crompton has been getting mainly 2nd team reps. When is the time to start getting him more 1st team reps to see if he can respond to what appears to be a very solid defense on our team? Or do you stick with Ainge, a guy with a fragile mind that tends to make bad decisions (see 2 INT's in scrimmage)? When do you get to the point where you turn the team over to a freshman, and live with his mistakes, or stay with unproven veteran?

Draft day!

So yesterday was draft day in my fantasy football league. I was in kind of a hurry to log on to the draft because Dave and I went to Zuma (formally Celebration Station) to play some video games. It was $10 Tuesday which allows unlimited video games for $10. That is a GREAT deal. Anyways, I arrived for the draft about 10 minutes before it began. I was a little bummed to find out that I was picking 9th. I was hoping for somewhere in the 4-6 range, but oh well. I think most of the teams were there, but there was a few absent. In our 10 team league, we play 1 QB, 2 RB's, 3 WR's, 1 W/R, 1 TE, 1 K, and 1 DEF with 6 Bench spots, thus equaling a total of 16 rounds. It actually went faster than I thought as it only took about 1 hour for the draft. Some in our league had some odd draft selections to say the least, but you never know whats going to happen in a draft. Picking 9th, I figured I might end up taking Peyton 1st, since most drafts don't have him going until the late 1st round. Usually, RB's are going to get the majority of the 1st round picks, because they are usually more reliable and less good ones, thus there is a higher priority for them. Well, Peyton was picked 4th, which was too high in my opinion, so that was out of the picture. Cody, who picked 8th, selected the next RB on my list, Rudi Johnson. So I had to settle for Lamont Jordan as my 1st RB. I sure hope he was right when he said that he was paying more attention to plays and all this year in Oakland. Then, to start the 2nd round, Brent (picking 10th, but 1st in the even rounds) picks my next RB, Ronnie Brown. I was about to start yelling at the computer at this point. So I went a different route and started the WR exit, selecting Chad Johnson. Then the next 5 of 6 picks were WR's. WOW! So anyways, here's some of the best and worst picks of the draft in my opinion.

Good - All of mine. Just kidding. I thought I got two steals, drafting Chester Taylor, Minnesota's new RB, with the 2nd pick in round 6, and Jason Witten with the 9th pick in round 7. Others, Brent drafted Javon Walker with the 1st pick in round 6, which could be a very good pick if he can get healthy. A sleeper for me could be Cedric Benson, whom I drafted 2nd in the 12th round. He is out for 2-3 weeks, which leaves him rested for the season, and there are also rumors flying around about Thomas Jones possibly going to the Jets, along with his strained hamstring. Nathan also got a great pick with the last pick of the draft, Lawrence Tynes, KC's kicker.

Bad - Both Antonio Gates and Jason Elam were drafted by the same team, in the 2nd and 3rd rounds respectively. That's insane. I can see Gates somewhat, but there is a little bit of unknown there with Brees gone. But Elam?! Kickers are never taken until late in the draft, because they can't bring you the points that others on the board at that time can. So it will be interesting to see how that works out. Both Baltimore and Chicago were drafted in the 6th round, still a little too high in my opinion for defenses. Both are great defenses, but again, I don't think they can bring you the same amount of points that some others on the board at the time can bring you. Oh well.

My draft, in order, included Lamont Jordan, RB, OAK, Chad Johnson, WR, CIN, Chris Chambers, WR, MIA, Reggie Bush, RB, NO, Donovan McNabb, QB, PHI, Chester Taylor, RB, MIN, Jason Witten, TE, DAL, Lee Evans, WR, BUF, Donte Stallworth, WR, NO, Ben Roethlisberger, QB, PIT, Jon Kasay, K, CAR, Cedric Benson, RB, CHI, Brandon Lloyd, WR, WAS, Ben Watson, TE, NE, David Givens, WR, TN, and last Philly's Defense. So that was my draft. Feel free to critique away.

Cribs

Hey MTV, welcome to my crib. Just kidding, I had to get that in there somehow. Don't think I'll ever get a chance to really say that, so I just thought I would get it out of the way. So anyways, like I had posted previously, I am still in the same apartment, just I now have it all to myself. Rebecca, my cousin, moved out so she could save money for a house, so now the whole place is mine. So I decided to do a little redecorating. I painted two of the walls in the living room/den area. Now I know your asking why only 2? Well, if you've been in the apartment, you know why. The third wall contains the front door and is probably like 30 feet long. Plus, there really isn't a closure in the living room, so if I painted that wall, then I would basically have to paint the whole apartment, which wasn't going to happen. Luckily, the landladies will allow you to paint the apartment as long as you paint it back when you leave, so that allowed me to add a little color. The living room still isn't quite finished as I need some more things to hang up to make it look more homely, but that will come with time. So anyways to Rebecca's old room, now known as the UT room. As you can see above, the highlight of the room is the orange and white checkerboard. It really adds something to the room. You can see parts of it from the hallway, and it automatically draws your eyes to it, which is what it is supposed to do. And yes, that is Home Depot's Tennessee Orange, and yes it was a pain to paint, taking almost 6 hours of taping and painting, but it was worth it. Other notable items are the bed in the left bottom corner that has kind of been turned into a day bed, and the shelf on the right containing special UT moments from my life. The top shelf contains a clock I bought at Myrtle Beach that looks like a scoreboard but gives the time, date, and temperature. Accompanying the clock is three pics from my graduation. The second shelf is from Senior Night with the basketball team. It has photos of me and my parents with Buzz and the other seniors. Third shelf is my gift from that night, a signed basketball from everyone on the team, including players, coaches, trainers, managers, and a special guest that night who is also one of my favorite UT players of all time, Ron Slay. If you ever got a chance to meet that guy, he is awesome. One of the nicest guys ever. Fourth shelf is another treasure. It's my UT Letterman's jacket. After your last year as a manager, you are rewarded a Letter from the University, so that really means alot to me. Not many people can say they were a UT Letterman. The bottom shelf is just some extra stuff I threw down there to complete the shelf. Overall, it's a really cool room I think, and really makes a difference in the apartment, and let's me show off some of my stuff from basketball. If anyone ever wants to come check it out, holla at me and I'll be sure to give you a tour and show you all my rides and everything. :) Had to get another MTV joke in there. Tomorrow, I'll be sharing about my NFL fantasy football draft which is taking place tonight. Hopefully, I'll be able to draft a good team. Peace out homies!

A little shake ....... and bake

For those that are extremely confused right now, I went and saw Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby last night. It was hilarious. If you are a Will Ferrell fan, and enjoyed his other movies such as Anchorman, then you will like this one. Despite what some had said, it actually does have a plot to it. Although it doesn't have a very complicated plot, there is one to follow. I really thought the funniest part of the movie was the company ads in the movie. NASCAR is known for the endorsement ads on their cars and uniforms, and it seems as though Talladega Nights was trying to pick fun at that aspect. Everywhere you looked in the movie, there was an ad placement. There were so many ad placements that there was actually a commercial in the middle of the movie. I don't think I have ever actually seen a commercial in the middle of the movie. They showed some clips of commercials that Ricky Bobby made during the movie, but this was an actual commercial that you would have seen on tv. It just makes you wonder how much these companies actually paid to have their products placed into the movie. So, I researched this and found something very interesting. The three companies with the most air time in the movie, which happens to be the three sponsors on the main characters cars, Wonder Bread, Old Spice, and Perrier, were not required to pay integration fees for the movie. Both Ferrell and Adam McKay, who directed the film, felt that they needed the cooperation of the companies to pull the film off. So instead of asking for a fee, they asked that the companies to help promote the film. Wonder Bread has done in-store promotions for the movie and Old Spice spent $2.3 million in running ads for the film. Interesting enough is that Perrier did not help promote the film at all. If you want to read more about this unprecedented product integration, click here. Hopefully, tomorrow, I will be able to bring you some pictures of my new crib.

Athletes these days

Even though I'm definitely a bigger basketball fan than football fan, I thought I would dive into the football talk today. Obviously, the football team has been in the news lately for all of the wrong reasons. With practice starting tomorrow, hopefully the team will be able to focus on the field and forget about everything that has happened off of the field. So heres my opinion on everything that has happened....
1) Lee Smith. Need I say more. It makes you wonder what is going through that young man's head. For those that don't know, he was accused of sleeping with one of his high school teachers and possibly of some of his grades being tampered with in high school. Now, I say accused because none of this has been proven yet, so I'm not going to say he is guilty or not. But with that hanging over his head, he gets an underage DUI Monday night for having his car on the sidewalk, and then supposedly hitting the car parked in front of him when he tried to pull away when the police approached. Unfortunately for Smith, he was dismissed from the team before ever getting a chance to begin his college career. I wish him the best and hope he can turn things around for himself.
2) Marsalous Johnson. There is something going on here. There are two totally different sides of the story. Johnson is accused of pointing a toy gun at an off duty Wildlife officer on the interstate. Johnson claims that the officer was in front of him, tried to cause an accident by slamming on his breaks, at which time Johnson passed him and flipped him off. Something isn't right here. Rumors are going around that back up Johnson, but they are just that, rumors. It's going to be interesting to see what really comes of this.
3)Gerald Williams. He really hasn't been in the news, but those that follow football know who he is. Gerald failed to qualify last year as some of his credits from his high school weren't accepted. He studied and raised his ACT score enough so that he could take those courses of his transcript and thus qualify. Well, he is still not at UT. The NCAA Clearinghouse has yet to make a decision on Williams, and it almost looks like they are dragging their foot on this one. With practice starting tomorrow, it's almost like they are punishing this kid. And I'm starting to feel for the guy. NO ONE should have to go through all that. Just another reason why the NCAA needs to get it's act together.

Where you been?

Hey, it's me again. Sorry for the lack of posts the past week. I've been crazy busy. My roommate moved out, so I'm all by myself now. It's kind of nice to have the place all to myself. I'm starting my sixth year in an apartment, and this will be my first having the place to myself. I guess there are advantages to having roommates and advantages to living by yourself. Unfortunately, I don't have anyone to talk to or just chill with at the apartment anymore, but I am able to do whatever I want whenever I want. So, back on track, I have been busy trying to arrange the apartment and get everything where it should be. I've painted some of the walls, which adds a whole new twist to the apartment, gotten new couches in the living room, and turned my roommates old room into a UT room. More pics of that to come as it looks really cool. Only two people have had the pleasure to see it yet, and both have been more than complimentary of the room. Just if you were wondering, it's so great because I painted one of the walls an orange and white checkerboard. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it. Also, all of last week I was preparing for an interview that I had with TVA just yesterday. I think it went well, but I guess we will see. I hope to hear something from them within about 2-3 weeks. Hopefully, I can start making some real money and get out of my current job. So everybody say a quick prayer for me that I might be able to get this job. Lastly, I said bye to a good friend last night. BMcD, aka Bryan McDermott, finally landed a job in Nashville and leaves today. I wish him well and I am sure we will stay in touch. If you want to hear from BMcD, take a gander over to ADHD Land which is linked over on the sidebar. Till next time, peace out.